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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Nostalgia & Reminiscence: Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb & Just One

20/3/2016

8 Comments

 
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Mihály is on honeymoon in Italy when he bumps into János, an old school friend who, when they last met in London, stole his gold watch. The chance encounter throws up memories of his youth, an extended adolescence of irresponsibility under the influence of the charismatic Tamás, and his sister, Éva. The following day, en route to Rome with his wife, he steps down from the train to grab a coffee. Inadvertently – or perhaps with unconscious intention – he boards the wrong train just as it’s pulling out of the station. Disembarking in Perugia, he realises that he’s been given the perfect opportunity to separate from his wife.
Described as passive, Mihály is nevertheless driven by nostalgia for his youth and the shared obsession with death – or rather dying – that resulted in Tamás’s suicide. His chaotic journey brings him intense conversations with an English doctor, an American art student, another childhood friend turned Franciscan monk and a somewhat manic scholar of religious history, Mihály’s own first love. Meanwhile, although the family business back in Hungary is struggling without him, Mihály resists his brother’s attempt to persuade him home.

Mihály’s desire to exit his own life is a theme I’ve explored in my short story
Doctoring, recently republished by Red Fez. But I wasn’t sure I got what made the ultimate exit, through death, so attractive. I can appreciate the draw of suicide for those enduring unbearable suffering; but Mihály and his friends were privileged both through class and education. I can recognise the childish and adolescent toying with themes of mortality, romanticised in stories such as Romeo and Juliet, or as an extreme form of transformation, Catholicism’s notion of swapping this life for a better one, both of which feature in my debut novel, Sugar and Snails. I was also conscious of Freud’s notion of the death instinct which I’ve never completely understood. But the concept put forward in Journey by Moonlight seems different by virtue of the young people’s eroticism of death.

On initial reading I didn’t pick up much of the humour of this novel either but, fortunately, reading it along with my book group meant they were able to point me to some amusing sections. We also had an interesting discussion on whether or not we believe in the death drive. If you’re a bit concrete in your literary interpretations as I can sometimes be, this might be a good novel to read along with a group.

Antal Szerb was born in Budapest in 1901 and, although of Jewish descent, a lifelong Catholic. Sadly that did not prevent him being persecuted for his Jewish ancestry until his tragic death in a forced labour camp in 1945. Originally published in 1937, the novel seems to skirt the rise of fascism, apart from the odd oblique reference, although J at my book group suggested that Mihály’s terrifying sensation of standing on the edge of a whirlpool might also allude to the political threat.

With no previous experience of
Hungarian literature, despite the honour of having had a couple of my short stories translated into Hungarian, I was pleased to have the opportunity to begin my acquaintance. Thanks to Pushkin press for my review copy and to Len Rix for the English translation.

Over at the Carrot Ranch this week, Charli Mills
is indulging in reminiscence not so much in nostalgia but in celebration of how much our community has grown. All it took was just one blogger to connect her to another; all it took was just one attempt to reach of us to develop the flash-fiction habit. (My just one was the wonderfully inspiring Norah Colvin, as she was for many others; my first 99-worder was, perhaps surprisingly for me, a fictional memoir which I likened to growing bonsai in my shock at producing something so small.) There are full-size trees in my response to the 99th 99-word challenge on the subject of just one.

As with the
monster prompt, it took me some time to find what I wanted. I’m constitutionally pulled towards the metaphorical bad apple or, as in Journey by Moonlight, the suicidal youth who infects the group. But I pushed myself to explore just one as a force for good; so here it is, and I get a bonus point for including cake!

Apple Harvest
Students camping in the meadow signalled every summer’s end. By day stripping trees in the orchard. By night songs round the campfire, tiptoeing off to tents two by two. When I was small, they’d let me sing along.
Now I’m big and clumsy, Mother keeps me in the kitchen, sorting the good apples from bad. But a cake’s arrived for someone’s birthday; I’m to take it down and come straight back.
“Stay a moment!” His bronzed hand on my shoulder. “At least have a slice of cake.” Just one smile but it’ll see me through the winter. Just one.

Picture
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
8 Comments
Lisa Reiter link
21/3/2016 08:43:56 am

A fab 'just one'. Thrilling. We'd like to know more..!

Reply
Annecdotist
21/3/2016 11:11:29 am

Thanks, Lisa, I'm not sure there is much more, but I think of the character as a young woman with Down's syndrome who is no longer as cute as she used to be and her mother's perhaps a little overprotective.

Reply
Charli Mills
22/3/2016 04:19:53 am

Another compelling review. I've bookmarked your Doctoring and will read it when I get home (still in Missoula after BinderCon). That "just one" smile is heartbreaking. On one hand we are to have a sense of self outside of what others think, yet what others think has such an impact on how we view ourselves. The story is beautifully framed by the image of the apples. And cake, too.

Reply
Annecdotist
22/3/2016 01:38:47 pm

Thanks, Charli, it takes a strong person to hold up their heads in the absence of affirmations. looking forward to hearing how the conference went and glad you noticed the apples!!

Reply
Norah Colvin link
26/3/2016 11:42:45 am

Thank you for your acknowledgement, Anne. I was so pleased when you joined in with the challenge. I always enjoy reading your responses. You have a gift for story. I love this story about apples and cake, and sorting the good from the bad. I am hoping the hand is placed on the shoulder in generosity and not for any other sinister reason. Sorry. You did say it would be a force for good in this story, but I can't help wondering about the intent.

Reply
Annecdotist
26/3/2016 05:14:58 pm

Isn’t that so interesting? I wonder if my dark side is fading over time as I definitely saw him as being friendly with no suspicious motives, but I can see how anyone (including me on another day) could expect the opposite.
Thanks, as always, for your support.

Reply
Ava link
16/5/2016 01:38:10 pm

I'm so glad you started your journey with Hungarian literature on this novel! Szerb was a brilliant writer and had a great impact on literary history-writing as well. Journey by Moonlight is my longtime favourite, I had first read it as a fresher English major and remember being stunned. I reread it a couple of months ago as a grown-up, mother of three but it made me feel the same. It was like being a teenage girl again with all those doubts and confidence. Yet I know it is a difficult read even in Hungarian, for Hungarians. It must have been quite a task to convey all the subtleties in English.

I was surprised to read: "Inadvertently – or perhaps with unconscious intention – he boards the wrong train just as it’s pulling out of the station." I was somehow convinced it was absolutely on purpose, but I have to check.
Anyway, I'm glad, you gave it a go!

Reply
Annecdotist
17/5/2016 02:59:52 pm

Thanks for bringing a proper Hungarian position on this novel. I do think my friends might have picked up on the subtleties better than I did! I know I also had trouble with another novel that romanticised teenage suicide, so this form might have pushed up against some of my blocks.
Well I'll await your verdict on whether he deliberately boards the wrong train – that was definitely not how I read it in the translation, although retrospectively he's happy to have done so.

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